Board of Regents Committee To Eliminate Controversial Tuition Set-Aside Program

The Iowa Board of Regents approved creation of a committee today to eliminate a controversial tuition set-aside program within five years.

The program, which provides financial aid for some students by drawing from all students' tuition dollars, this year.

Critics in a time when tuition is at record highs, while losing the program would negatively impact thousands of students.

"Clearly this isn’t a simple problem," regents president pro tem Bruce Rastetter said. "The tuition set aside program that exists is critical... we need to try to find a solution, longer term, to move away from tuition set aside."

A report from the regents said in fiscal year 2011, over $144 million, or 21 percent of tuition proceeds, was set-aside for need-based and merit-based aid. A total of 25,583 undergraduate students received student financial aid through the tuition set-aside funds.

The newly created Board of Regents student financial aid committee would be charged with not just eliminating the program, but with finding a way to replace it.

Committee members will work with legislators to secure state funding for financial aid to replace the dollars that would be lost by eliminating the program. They would also work with the University of Iowa, Iowa State and Northern Iowa presidents to raise money for a financial aid program through the university foundations.